Heretofore, motor vehicle windshield wipers were considered to have solved the problem of removing rain, snow, and dirt from windshields. The solution was to use a pair of oscillating blades moving in a fan-like fashion across the windshield. While the blades, in fact, cleared the field of vision of the driver, they did leave areas of the windshield covered, which restricted the viewing area by 20 to 30 percent. Even though 20 to 30 percent does not seem like much, depending on which areas were restricted, a hazardous Condition could exist because of blind areas left by a fan-like wiper pattern.
The oscillating blades are operated by a single motor and linkage which cause the blades to oscillate in the same direction. However, to do this, the pivot points of the wiper arms are arranged to give the greatest cleaning area in front of the driver. The wiper blade on the driver's side is located so that the blade provides a clean area beginning at the side edge, extending the length of the blade, and forming an arc part way across the windshield. The passenger side wiper blade begins a path from the bottom of the windshield through an arc to a point close to the passenger side edge, completing the arc at the bottom of the windshield. The passenger side wiper blade forms a complete arc or fan-like pattern, while the driver side wiper blade only forms a partial arc.
It is obvious that the fan-like pattern does not clean the areas above the pattern or the area closest to the passenger side edge. These are areas which form the 20-30 percent of uncleaned portions of the windshield that could create a hazardous condition. The uncleaned area closest to the passenger side edge is the most hazardous area since it is in the peripheral vision area of the driver blocking or impairing visibility events in that area.
Not until the present invention has there been a windshield wiper which cleans the entire windshield surface. The present wiper eliminates the fan-like pattern of the prior art wiper blades. Further, the blind area closest to the passenger side edge left by the oscillating blade is eliminated.